Communism; Industrial Workers of the World; Socialism
Modern Socialism in France was rather inactive previous to the outbreak
of the Commune in 1871. Then, after the victory of the government forces
over the revolutionists, many leaders of the Commune declared for
Anarchism, but subsequently abandoned it as impracticable and devoted
themselves to the propaganda of Marxian Socialism. After Jules Guesde
and other communards were permitted to return to France, by the amnesty
of 1879, the party at first developed considerable strength, but soon
split up into several factions, with Guesde as the leader of the more
radical wing and Jaures and Millerand at the head of the moderate
parliamentarian group. In the election of May, 1914, the United
Socialists under Jaures polled 1,357,192 votes, while the Radical
Socialists and their allies in the Caillaux combination cast 2,227,176
votes. During the World War most of the Socialists, especially those in
parliament, supported the government.
After the War the Longuet faction of the Socialist Party became the
majority party, took over control of the great Paris Socialist daily
L'Humanite and chose Cashin as editor. On April 6, 1919, a great
demonstration took place in Paris in honor of Jaures, the Socialist
leader of France, who had been assassinated at the beginning of the
World War. This and the decisions taken at the Socialist party congress
of the Federation of the Seine on March 13th, demonstrated the decided
turn to the left that the Socialist Party had taken since its previous
congress in October, 1918. In the demonstration, consisting, perhaps, of
50,000 Socialists, cries of "Revolution!" "Down with the War!" "Down
with Clemenceau!" "Long live the Soviet!" and "Long live Russia!" filled
the air for three hours.
"The Call," New York, May 19, 1919, thus comments:
"The Socialist papers for several days appeared uncensored, though
every line breathed revolution. Most startling of all, there were
as many soldiers as civilians marching.
"Seven days later the representatives of each Socialist local in
the Department of the Seine met in convention to decide upon which
of three resolutions they should recommend the coming national
congress of the Socialist Party to adopt. The discussion was hot,
and more or less revolved around the personalities of the three
leaders, Albert Thomas, Right Socialist, Jean Longuet, Left
Socialist, and F. Loriot, Communist or Bolshevist. Broadly
speaking, the Thomas resolution based its faith upon present
political action and future political power; the Longuet resolution
advocated a third International, without indorsing the third
International held in Moscow in March, and the Loriot resolution
indorsed the Zimmerwald resolutions (against all wars) and
recognized the existence of the Third International established by
the Russian Bolshevik party.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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